by Rosita Sweetman

January 08 2006

Sunday Independent

APROFESSOR in
America has just produced his eleventh book on cancer, detailing 30 years of
research that claims the American government, American big business and what he
terms "the Cancer Establishment" - the big cancer charities, along
with their buddies in academia and industry - are hoodwinking ordinary people
into thinking the war against cancer is being won when it isn't.

People also
assume that the main causes of cancer are smoking and "lifestyle" and
that if we just keep spending more money, the cure is just around the corner,
but, according to Professor SamuelS Epstein, neither of these assumptions is
true.

Further, this septuagenarian
Noam Chomsky of
the cancer killing fields says that the deaths from cancer suffered by millions
of ordinary Americans could have been avoided, if the blindingly obvious was
universally accepted: that thousands of carcinogens are being poured into the
environment every year, and that until cancer prevention is made the top priority
of American government, industry and "the Cancer Establishment", and
carcinogenic substances are banned and phased out, the death and suffering will
continue unabated.

One in two
American men and one in three women will develop cancer in their lives. Some
1,400,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancer a year, of whom 600,000 will die.

In an attempt to
explain the figures, Professor Epstein goes
back to the origins of the US petro-chemical industry in the Forties when artificial
pesticides - many of them diluted nerve gases developed for chemical warfare
in the Second World War - were sold on to farmers for use on agriculture. As
they became more widespread, the nuclear industry, also a 'spin-off' of the
war, swung into gear.

Thus, a massively
powerful, aggressive, and hugely polluting force, was unleashed, with no controls,
no testing, and, from the industries' point of view, consistent trivialising of
the consequences of their polluting actions, so that now, 60 years later, there
are toxins everywhere, with "pervasive environmental contamination of air,
water, hazardous waste sites and the workplace with carcinogenic, industrial
chemicals;contamination of food with carcinogenic pesticides; carcinogenic
ingredients in cosmetics andtoiletries and household products, carcinogenic
prescription drugs and carcinogenic high-doseradiation".

When you think
about it, of course it all makes perfect sense. If everything is laced with
carcinogens then there's going to be more and more cancer. And Professor
Epstein's table of the "dirty dozen" 'Author claims that everyday
products sold in US, such as milk, talc, hair colour and toothpaste are laced
with carcinogens'

consumer products
makes alarming reading. He claims that everyday products sold in America, such
as whole milk, talcum powder, toothpaste, hair colour and pet collars are laced
with carcinogens.

If this is so, why aren't the big cancer
charities yelling from the rooftops: "Get rid of the carcinogens. Stop
killing people." Apparently, because they are mostly far too busy making
millions.

Cancer is big,
big business and the US cancer societies are inextricably involved. As
Professor Epstein puts it: "For decades, the war on cancer has been
dominated by powerful interlocking groups of professional and financial
interests, with highly profitable drug development as its hub."

Even more disconcerting
is "the Cancer Establishment's" involvement in, support for and
huge financial gain from the mammogram industry. Every woman is now being
told that she is not looking after herself if she doesn't have a mammogram.
However, Professor Epstein in his book Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing
Cancer War shows how the industry is driven by big business interests with
reckless disregard for the health of women and he says there is a 20 per cent
increased risk of developing cancer from the radiation of mammograms alone.

For young women,
it's even more dangerous, with a Canadian study showing a 52 per cent increase
in early breast cancer deaths in women aged 40/50 who had had just ten annual
mammograms (as compared to women who had been given old-fashioned physical
examination).

Mammograms, he
claims, are not only an unnecessary, highly polluting and expensive addition to
the war on cancer, for many women they will prove lethal.

The people charged
with protecting ordinary folk from cancer in the US are hand-in-glove with the
pharmaceutical companies, the book goes on to claim. One ex-director of a leading
US cancer charity goes so far as to say that the charity has become "what
amounts to a government pharmaceutical company", while Leland Hartwell,
Nobel laureate, says: "Most [of its] resources are spent in promoting ineffective
drugs for terminal disease."

If, at this point,
you're feeling sick, don't give up, there are, says Professor Epstein, lots
of things to be done to get the fight back going:

First, and
foremost, arm yourself with information.

·Demand full,
clear and simple-to-understand labelling of all carcinogenic and/or toxic
ingredients in everything you, as a human being, come into contact with - from
carpets to cosmetics to garden pesticides, to everything.

·Demand full
labelling of all pesticides used in the growing of the food you eat, the
residues still on, and, of course, switch to organic food as soon as your
energy and wallet allow.

·Demand full
labelling on all prescription drugs you may have to take. (Professor Epstein
says prescription drugs may pose the single most important, and unrecognised,
avoidable carcinogenic risk for the US population).

On the wider
front, the professor advocates that all industries should be made to disclose
toxins they are using, and be made pay the clean-up costs. Similarly,
government bodies and local authorities should be made give full account of any
toxin they use or release. And all so-called cancer societies should be made
publicly transparent and accountable.

The hundreds upon
hundreds of reports that have been suppressed and 'lost' should be dug out and
made publicly available, the professor says. And all safe and green
technologies funded and assisted wherever possible.

With so many
families now touched by the trauma of cancer and cancer death, he believes,
that once people are given simple, understandable information on the entire
issue the tide will, naturally, begin to turn.

People power will
determine enough is enough.

The expert on
cancer, and, cancer prevention says a huge proportion of cancers are avoidable
and that the proliferation and growth of cancers throughout the industrialised
world is because the "run away technologies" (petro-chemical,
chemical pesticide, nuclear and now GM) have polluted our planet with
carcinogens and immunotoxins, and, so far, got away with it.

The Cancer War is
not being won, it is being lost, with cancer rates set to double by 2050. Lung
cancers are decreasing, but all other cancers are increasing, some by over 100
per cent. No silver-bullet drug, or miracle cure has emerged, despite the
expenditure of millions of dollars.

In America,
cancer societies are so embedded with the 'cancer industry' that their focus is
on the whole business of cancer rather than actually preventing people from
being exposed to carcinogens in the first place. "They are more interested
in making millions than in saving lives," Professor Epstein claims.

The only way to
win the cancer war is for ordinary people to fight back and to demand
carcinogenic and toxic ingredient labelling on all products they come into
contact with. If it's carcinogenic, don't buy it. That, more than anything,
will make the big guys sit up.

While Professor
Epstein has written a wonderful book, it says very little about the role of the
medical profession. Where does the medical profession stand in all of this? Do
they stand behind the drug companies? But even with that omission, Cancer-Gate
is the work of an extraordinary man.